Mayday the Vampire Slayer
by excaliburmk1
Summary: What if May Parker, daughter of the Amazing SpiderMan, had become Sunnydale's Slayer instead of Buffy?
1. Series Prologue

Disclaimer: The world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the Characters therein are the Property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The Watcher, Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and all related characters are the Property of Marvel Enterprises. Sentences 1, 2, and 5 are taken verbatim from page 1 of "What If……"#55. Please do not sue me.

_**Series Prologue**_

_"I am the Watcher. Son of a race of intergalactic scholars, it is my privilege to observe the unfolding history of my designated sector of the universe, and my sworn duty to abstain from all interference in those events." A small, yet important area of my jurisdiction is the Planet Earth, in a universe where that planet has born countless heroes and villains. The Avengers, the Masters of Evil, the Fantastic Four, Galactus, the Hulk, the Juggernaut, and Spider-Man, these are only a few of the powerful beings who inhabit this planet. "From time to time, for historical analysis, I peer into other universes alternate to my own, in which a given set of events happened differently than they did in the cosmos I know." _

_During the course of my research, I usually examine universes that are directly alternate to my own, those in which a single event changes the course of history. In one particular case, however, two realities came to my attention: one which was fairly close to mine in terms of the course of events; and one which was very different. In these two completely different realities, there exist two teenage girls who had much in common, and yet can not have been more different. Each one has obtained incredible power at a young age, each became a great hero in her own right, and each has kept their identity secret from the public world. On the other hand, the differences between the two are far more pronounced. Buffy Summers comes from a family broken by divorce, and was completely self-absorbed before she received the mystical power of the Vampire Slayer from the death of her predecessor. May "Mayday" Parker comes from a family that has hung together in spite of all the difficulties that have come upon them, and before her powers from her father, the Amazing Spider-man, kicked in, she was someone who could shatter clique barriers and make friends with almost anyone around her. The greatest difference between them, however, was their outlook on life. Buffy's power and newfound duty tore her out of a life that was completely oblivious to the pains and concerns of others, as well as the larger issues of the world. Although her responsibility transformed her into a hero willing to go to any lengths to defend the weakest of humanity, her lack of choice in the matter gnawed at her soul, beginning a slow downward spiral into despair and hopelessness. May had been trained from childhood that, whatever power she possessed, whatever advantage she gained, she had a responsibility to use it for the good of others. As a result, when she received her powers, she chose the responsibility that went with them, which enabled her to deal much more easily with the troubles and and trials her life forced upon her._

_As I observed these two realities, I encountered a new reality that I had never before encountered, a crossing of the previous two. A reality in which vampires, monsters, demons, and forces of darkness roamed the earth, but so too did humans possessing incredible power of a non-mystical nature. Far fewer beings obtained this type of power than in my own universe, but some of them are there. Two such beings were Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, and Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin. As it happened in Spider-Girl's reality, Spider-Man's final battle with the Green Goblin killed Osborn and destroyed Peter's leg. After that battle, Peter Parker gave up being Spider-Man once and for all to raise his young daughter May. He went through Police Academy and became a police scientist; using the knowledge he had gained over the years to assist the Police in hunting down and capturing the greatest of criminals from the lab. However, it is at this point that the timeline of this universe separates, as far as the Parkers are concerned, from the one with which we are already familiar. After 2 years in New York, Peter was offered a job at the Los Angeles Police Department as a Police scientist in LA. Peter accepted, and he and his family moved to California. Eleven years later, May Parker is going to Hemery High School. During the course of her sophomore year in high school, the man known as Merrick introduces her to her destiny as the Vampire Slayer, just as he had with Buffy in her reality .Up until the destruction of the school gym, events proceed in much the same manner as they did in Buffy's reality: Merrick's training, Pike's rescue, May's premature encounter with Lothos, Merrick's death, and Lothos' attack on the gym. With May being publicly blamed for the destruction of the gym and school parents screaming for her expulsion, Peter requests that his family be moved to a smaller, less urban setting in order to deal with the situation. The LAPD grants his request and moves him and his family to a small town a few miles south of Los Angeles. The name of that town is Sunnydale. As I continue to observe it should be very interesting to find out the answer to the question: What if May "Mayday" Parker became Sunnydale's Vampire Slayer instead of Buffy Summers?_


	2. Welcome to the Hellmouth Prologue

Disclaimer: The world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the Characters therein are the Property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The Watcher, Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and all related characters are the Property of Marvel Enterprises. All characters and situations are used purely for my own enjoyment and do no provide me with any sort of payment. Please do not sue me.

I will not use profanity in my stories as a matter of principle. When it becomes absolutely necessary to use it due to the nature of a character, "" will be used to replace it.

"_Italics"_ will be used to indicate thoughts, while telepathy, if it ever appears will be indicated by "**Bold-Underline**". Simple emphasis on a word or part of a word will be denoted by "**Bold**" type.

_**Mayday the Vampire Slayer**_

_**Episode 1- Welcome to the Hellmouth**_

Prologue

The school was deathly quiet until the sound of breaking glass was heard throughout the structure. Or rather, it would have been so, if there had been anyone within hearing distance beside the twin causes of the aforementioned sound.

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" asked the blond girl nervously, as she crouched outside the broken window.

"It's a great idea. Now come on." answered her companion. He was a half a head taller than the girl with an aggressive and somewhat dangerous look air about him. The two crawled through the smashed window of the classroom and walked out into the empty hall.

"Do you go to school here?" the girl inquired as the man drew her down the hall?"

"I used to. On top of the gym, it's so cool. You can see the whole town."

"I—I—I don't really want to go up there."

"Oh, you can't wait, huh?" he leered

"We're just going to get in trouble"

"Yeah, you can count on it."

The two leaned in to kiss each other. A sudden clatter put a stop to that as the girl whirled around and gasped at the sudden noise.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" asked the guy, apparently annoyed that his kiss had been interrupted.

"I heard a noise"

"It's nothing"

"Well, maybe it is something"

"Well, maybe it's some**thing**"

The girl snorted as if to say, "Don't be ridiculous" and told him it wasn't funny. The man then turned and peeked around the nearby corner. "Hello" he called in a sing-song voice. He turned back to the girl and said, "See, there's nobody here."

The girl turned away from him, as if to check for other hidden dangers. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm sure"

"Ok", the blonde concluded, and turned around suddenly to face him. The girl's face was suddenly devoid of all the nervousness she had come in with, as well as every other characteristic that could possibly qualify her as human. As her fangs streaked toward his throat, the man's last thought was, absurdly, "I thought I was the predator here."


	3. WttH Chp 1: Arrival

Disclaimer: The world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the Characters therein are the Property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The Watcher, Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and all related characters are the Property of Marvel Enterprises. All characters and situations are used purely for my own enjoyment and do no provide me with any sort of payment. Please do not sue me.

I will not use profanity in my stories as a matter of principle. When it becomes absolutely necessary to use it due to the nature of a character, "" will be used to replace it.

"_Italics"_ will be used to indicate thoughts, while telepathy, if it ever appears will be indicated by "**Bold-Underline**". Author comments and questions will be indicated by "**Bold**".

_**Mayday the Vampire Slayer**_

_**Episode 1- Welcome to the Hellmouth**_

Chapter 1- Arrival

The sleeping girl tossed and turned. Her dreams had become a mix of nightmarish images, from an army of vampires, to a pool of blood, to ugly creatures of incredible power. Throughout the dream, one dark figure kept intruding, creating a sense of incredible fear. Finally, his face came totally into the light. It was the most horrible vampiric face the girl had ever seen. It looked at her and she woke in a panic. As she gained a sense of her surroundings, knowing that she was in her bed, her heart rate slowed and her terror faded. Just then, she heard a knock at her bedroom door.

"Rise and shine, May. It's time to go to school." Announced her mother as she walked in. Her flaming red hair seemed to glow in the morning sun and her eyes sparkled with the excitement a new day always brought to her. "Let's see how fast we can fit ourselves in around here."

"I'll do my best, Mom" May Parker said as she rolled out of bed. "_It's not going to be easy to do that with the record I have_." she thought. "_Has it really been two months since I burned down the gym? It's amazing how fast my life has changed..."_

_------------------------------------_

Just a few months ago, May had been perfectly ordinary, or at least that was how it had seemed to her. To most of the other people she had encountered, she was something of an oddity, an unclassifiable phenomenon. She had been the star player of the Hemery High women's basketball team, and yet her grades were good enough to compete with the best students in the school. She made friends with jocks and nerds alike, and yet neither group was able to look down on her as "uncool". People always said that her ability to bridge the gap between these groups was as result of have a genius for a father and a former supermodel for a mother. There was some truth to that, since she had seemed to inherit the best traits of her parents, but the truth was, there was always something extra about her that attracted people to her. She had an extraordinary sense of compassion for the people around, to help and listen to them. No one at school knew it, but her ability to attract people was a direct result of her father's philosophy, which she had grown up with and made her own. The philosophy was very simple: With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility. Her father had always taught her that whatever talents, connections, or abilities she gained, whatever form of power, she had a duty to use them for the benefit of others rather than only herself. As a result, although the cheerleaders and others in the "popular group" would have denied it, May Parker was the most popular girl in school.

That all changed one day after school as May was doing layup drills in the gym. As she completed a basket from the other side of the court, she heard the sound of hands clapping behind her. She had turned around suddenly, startled. A man was standing there, a small, thin, grey haired old man with a mustache and a beard. He told her that his name was Merrick and that he had come to tell her that she was the only one who had the strength and skill to stop the vampires. At first, of course, she thought he was crazy. Then he began asking her about her dreams, dreams she had never told anyone about, dreams of being other women in other ages, dreams of vampires. He told her that she needed to come to the graveyard and he would show her the destiny that she had been born for.

That night, Merrick showed May that vampires did exist. That night, she staked her first vampire. That night, her life changed forever.

After that, thing really began to heat up. Merrick began training her; May saved the life of a boy named Pike and he unofficially joined her in her quest; Merrick was killed; and May's identity as the Vampire Slayer was revealed in her first, pre-mature encounter with the Vampire Lord Lothos. Three days later, Lothos attacked the High school prom with an army of vampires in hopes of eliminating this newest thorn in his side once and for all. In a horrific battle, May was able to destroy Lothos and his vampire army and got most of the humans in the gym away from them. However, there was a price to be paid. During the fight, Pike was badly injured and May, knowing she couldn't beat the entire army in physical combat, was forced to burn down the gym in order to destroy them.

May was immediately fingered as the culprit of this action by one of the teachers, and she was immediately arrested, despite the protests of many of the students who had survived. They were not sure what to believe about that night, but they were sure that May Parker had saved their lives with her actions. Peter and Mary Jane Watson Parker confronted her in the jail cell she had been taken to about what had happened. May told them a slightly altered version of the events of that night, being careful not to reveal her history with Lothos or her identity as the Slayer, as per Merrick's instructions. Her parents believed her story for three reasons: her tearful plea for them to believe her about the vampires was unlike anything they had seen from her before, and they knew from experience that she did not lie, no matter how much trouble she was in; second, the support of her fellow students meant that something truly dangerous had been going on in that gym aside from her; and third, her father had hinted that he had encountered a vampire or two in his years on the police force. She was brought to trial over the incident, but her father hired an old friend of his to represent her, a blind lawyer named Matt Murdock. (**Can Daredevil tell if a person is leaving something out from what they say? I am going to assume that he can't for story purposes, but if he can, I will rewrite this section as accurately as I can**) He, in turn, found numerous witnesses willing to vouch for both May's character and her actions in her trial. She was aquitted, but the vagueness of the witnesses testimony, due to their reluctance to admit they had seen anything supernatural, left many adults unsatisfied. As a result, the school board moved to expel her, saying that she was, "A dangerous influence on our young people. By their own testimony, she has become a person they want to emulate." May, out of a desire to keep her secret identity hidden, asked her father if they could moved somewhere else, where they wouldn't have to battle legally to get her back into school. Peter, in turn, asked his boss at the L.A.P.D. if he could be transferred to a smaller town, one where he and his family could deal with the situation without the attitudes of the other adults getting in the way. The department approved the transfer and the Parkers moved to 1630 Revello Drive in the small town of Sunnydale, California.

-------------------------

"Honey, we're here" Mary Jane's voice startled May out of her thoughts as they pulled up in front of Sunnydale High School. "Knowing you, I'm sure you'll have half the school following you around by the end of the day."

"Sure, Mom." May said as she climbed out of the car, rolling her eyes a little and smiling at her mother's comment. "I promise I won't burn down any buildings."

"Good. I'll see you later." Mary Jane declared, and drove off.

May looked began to look around the campus nervously. She was nowhere near as confident as she had tried to present to her mother this morning. "_Given everything that's happened, I'll be lucky if I can ever get any friends. I don't know what I have in common with anyone anymore. At least I can count on a vacation from vampire slaying for a while. I might even have a chance to get some semblance of a normal life back together. After all, what could happen in a town with a name like Sunnydale?"_

--------------------------------------

Xander Harris skated down the sidewalk, bobbing and weaving around people as they yelped and scrambled to get out of his way. "This is about the only time when people get out of the way for me." He thought wryly. "This is fun."

His thoughts were cut short by the sight of a gorgeous brown-haired girl he had never seen before. Xander quit bobbing and weaving, and just stared. Her hair was cut fairly short, just down to the top of her neck. As for the rest of her, she looked------

Again, Xander's thoughts were halted, this time by a metal bar to the stomach. He fell on his back in pain and swore. Looking up, he saw the metal railing for the school's front steps in front of him. Belatedly, he put it together: when he had stopped to stare at the girl, his skateboard had kept right on going with him on it until it had connected with the bar in front of him. He also saw the person he had been looking for and who he could not have found at a more embarrassing time.

"Willow! You're so very much the person I wanted to see right now." He said sheepishly to the thin, red-haired girl standing over him.

"Oh, really?" Willow brightened as Xander jumped up and began to walk with her toward the school.

"Yeah. You know, I kind of had a problem with the math."

Willow's smile faded a little bit, but Xander didn't seem to notice. "Which part?"

"The math. Can you help me tonight? Pleeeese be my study buddy?" he pleaded.

"Well, what's in it for me?" Willow asked, her grin returning as she slipped back into the banter that always characterized their relationship.

"A shiny nickel."

"Okay. Do you have 'Theories in Trig'? You should check it out."

"Check it out?"

At this point, Willows voice assumed a slight tone that people used when talking to someone stupid, somehow without losing the friendly, bantering quality. "From the library. You know, where the books live.

"Right. I'm there. See, I want to change." Xander said as they walked into the school.

"Hey" a voice called. Xander looked up to see his best male friend Jesse Nixon (**As far as I know, they didn't give Jesse a last name in the series, so I'm using "Nixon". If anyone can find a reference to his last name, I will replace it. All suggestions for a last name are welcome.) **standing right inside the school door as Xander passed through.

"Hey Jesse. What's what?"

"New Girl."

"I know. I saw her. Pretty much a hotty."

At this point, Willow broke into what was becoming a very male conversation. "I heard someone was transferring."

Xander gave that less than half a second of thought before turning back to Jesse. "So tell. What do you know about her?

Jesse made a very eloquent shrug that said he knew nothing. "New Girl."

"Thanks a lot. You're certainly a font of nothing." Xander grumbled. _"I have got to find a way to talk to this girl, whoever she is. Something tells me that knowing her will be extremely interesting."_ Little did he know how interesting.

-------------------------------------

"May Parker"

The girl in question groaned mentally as her new principal said her name. She should have figured that she wouldn't be able to enter a new school without a trip to the principal's office, especially given the majority of her old falculty's newfound distaste for her. She studied Principal Flutie as he walked around her chair speaking from her records on his way back to his seat. He was a bit round in the waist, with black hair and glasses. May wasn't usually someone to judge people by first impressions, but somehow the tone of the man's voice gave the impression of someone attempting to fake a friendliness he didn't feel. May was about to scold herself for her early impression her new principal when she was jolted out of her thoughts by a ripping sound.

"Welcome to Sunnydale." Flutie declared as he finished ripping up May's records into eight different pieces. "A clean slate, May, that's what you get here. What's past is past. We don't care what it says on a piece of paper even if it says….." He picked up the destroyed report in front of him. "Whoa." He uttered as the genial smile that had been on his face since May entered the office took a sudden downturn. Looking up at her, his face held an expression that sent two diametrically opposed messages at the same time: namely "Explaination, please", and "No explaination needed. You're a troublemaker." His attention was then turned back to the ripped report on his desk, which he began to tape back together.

"_So much for my first impression being incorrect."_ May thought. "Mr. Flutie…."

Without looking up, the principal answered, "All the kids here are free to call me Bob"

"_Maybe that will put me at least a little bit on his good side" _"Then Bob…………"

"But they don't." Flutie said as he looked back up.

"_Good grief! What's with the bait and switch routine?"_ May asked herself. She recognized that, without bringing vampires or legal language into the discussion, her cause was lost, at least until she had a chance to prove herself. She remained quiet until Flutie turned his head up from repairing her records.

"May, don't worry. Any other school, they might say 'watch your step' or 'we'll be watching you', but that's just not the way here. We want to service your needs and help you to respect our needs." His voice grew higher as he spoke and he placed May's repaired records in an open folder in front of him. "And if your needs and our needs don't mesh…….." He slammed the folder shut.

"_So much for no 'watch your step'"_

_-----------------------_

As May walked out of the principal's office, she felt an odd buzzing in her head that she had never felt before. She tried to isolate what it felt like, but as she did, someone crashed into her. May's bag fell open as the girl who had bumped stumbled down the hall grumbling at her. With a sigh, she bent down to pick up her belongings, only to find herself face to face with a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy about her own age.

"Can I have you?" he asked.

May's mind did a flip at that point. _"What did he ask me? Who does this guy think he is?" _May's thoughts broiled, but before her face could reflect them, the kid rephrased his statement. "Uh, can I HELP you?"

At that, May broke into a smile. _"Ok, not a jerk, just a teenage boy who stumbles over his tongue. As long as he didn't intend it, we'll be just fine."_ "Thanks. Not too many people would stop to help a girl get her stuff back in a crowded hallway."

"I don't know you, do I?" the boy replied, with a smile on his face that could best be termed "puppy-like".

"I'm Mayday. I'm new."

"Xander is- is me. Hi."

"Oh, thanks."

"Well, uh, maybe I'll see you around. Maybe at school, since we both go there."

Seeing the newly introduced Xander's nervousness, May picked up her bag, smiled at him and said, "I hope I see you more than just around. I need all the help I can get to settle in around here. It was nice to meet you, Xander." She than headed off to her first class, her long legs and boundless energy carrying her through the halls far faster than the students alongside her.

"_What the heck! I can't believe it."_ Xander stood dumbstruck in the hall. _"I was making an idiot out of myself and she acts like she doesn't see it. Who is this girl! _He looked down at the floor and saw something that he had missed when he and May were cleaning up her bag. "Hey." He yelled as he picked the item up. "You forgot your….." at which point he bothered to look at the item in question. "Stake?" _"Ok, a girl who ignores my trainwreck conversation skills and carries a stake around in her purse. Now I know I need to keep an eye on her._

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**Sorry for the very long delay in posting. I was thinking about trying to get the entire first Episode out before I posted anything else, but so far I have not gotten around to writing it, so I might as well post what I have. **


	4. WttH Chp 2: Initiation

Disclaimer: The world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the Characters therein are the Property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The Watcher, Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and all related characters are the Property of Marvel Enterprises. All characters and situations are used purely for my own enjoyment and do no provide me with any sort of payment. Please do not sue me.

I will not use profanity in my stories as a matter of principle. When it becomes absolutely necessary to use it due to the nature of a character, "" will be used to replace it.

"_Italics"_ will be used to indicate thoughts, while telepathy, if it ever appears will be indicated by "**Bold-Underline**". Author comments and questions will be indicated by "**Bold**".

**Author Note: from the beginning of this story onward, unless I say otherwise, May's hairstyle is smooth, curling-down-below-the-ears style that she got in Issue 25, not the short-spiked jock look she had before that. **

_**Mayday the Vampire Slayer**_

_**Episode 1- Welcome to the Hellmouth**_

Chapter 2- Initiation

"It's estimated that about 25 million people died in that one 4-year span. But the fun part of the black plague is that it originated in Europe how?"

Mayday sat in her history class, for once, bored out of her mind. The teacher in front of her just kept droning on about the black plague, even answering her own questions. "Classroom conditions were never this bad at Hemery. I wonder, did the kids stop answering questions because the teachers were so dull, or did the apathy of the students force the teachers to adopt this style as a defense mechanism?" May thought idly as she tried to simultaneously take notes and keep from letting her mind travel elsewhere to avoid the boredom. This was her third class today, and none of the teachers had been any different. For that matter, she hadn't even had time to go to the library to pick up her schoolbooks yet, a fact that became particularly important as the teacher told them to turn to page 63 to look at a map. May looked around for some way she could see someone else's book. Fortunately, the brunette girl next to her saw her scanning the room and moved her book over so May could see it.

"Thanks."

"Sure" said the girl. Mercifully, in the next few seconds, the bell rang to end the class. As everyone around them stood up and headed elsewhere, the brunette stuck out her hand.

"Hi, I'm Cordelia."

"I'm May. My friends call me Mayday." May responded as she shook Cordelia's hand.

"Mayday, huh? That's new. I never thought I'd know anyone with a distress call for a name."

May blushed a little at that. "It's just one of those names you pick up playing on a basketball team."

"Hmm, interesting." Cordelia replied as the two began to assemble their papers and got up to leave. "Anyway, if you're looking for a textbook of your very own, there's probably a few left in the library."

"Thanks. That's where I was headed, but I don't quite know where the library is at the moment. Do you think you could help me find it?"

"Sure. Come on." Cordelia gestured toward the door. As they headed out, Cordelia inquired, "So you're from Hemery, right? In L.A.?"

"Yeah."

"I would kill to live in L.A. That close to that many shoes?"

May giggled in spite of herself. Cordelia seemed to have shallow prom queen attitude down to a T. May had certainly run into enough of those types in her time at Hemery. However, the very fact that Cordelia had said 'Hi' to a strange girl and offered to help her out seemed to belie that image. May had a gut feeling that having Cordelia for a friend could be a lot more interesting than it looked.

"I think you're going to be O.K. here." Cordelia continued. "If you stick with me and mine, you'll be accepted in no time. Of course we do have to test your coolness factor…..

May interrupted her. "Coolness factor? That's a new one on me."

Cordelia blinked. "You mean that no one has ever tested how cool you are?"

"No one ever needed to. I've always been satisfied with who I am, and most of the people I've run into seem to be satisfied with me as well."

Recovering from her mild shock, Cordelia tried another tactic. "Well think of this as a test to see how well you fit in around here."

May smiled. "Alright. Who knows. It might be fun."

"Alright. As I was saying, you're from L.A., so you can skip the written, but let's see. Vamp nail polish?

"Useless and obvious?"

"So over."

"Can I assume that both qualify as correct?"

"Definitely. James Spader?"

"Unquestionably hot."

"Frappaccinos?

"Trendy, but tasty."

"Congratulations. You passed."

"Oh good." May's smile had only the tiniest bit of irony in it. At this point, Cordelia slowed down as they arrived at a water fountain. A red haired girl dressed in a green flannel dress and long whit stockings was drinking from it. She jerked up as Cordelia said her name.

"Willow. Nice dress. Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears." Cordelia's voice was a study in sarcasm. May couldn't believe the change that had seemed to come over the girl.

"Uh well—well my mom picked it out." The girl named Willow stuttered.

"No wonder you're such a guy magnet." Cordelia replied in the same tone. Then her voice turned hard. "Are you done?"

Apparently confused, Willow's head bobbed back and forth between Cordelia's face and the water fountain briefly before she registered what Cordelia was asking. "Oh." She than walked off down the hall looking like a whipped puppy.

May was about to say something, whether to defend Willow or to chastise Cordelia, she didn't know, but Cordelia spoke first as she turned to face May.

"If you want to fit in here, the first rule is know your losers. Once you can identify them all by sight, they're a lot easier to avoid." Cordelia then bent down for a drink.

May decided to hold her tongue for now. There was plenty of time to get Cordelia to come around. After all, before the gym blowup, she had gotten a lot of her friends from all different groups to hang out together, and trying to preach to Cordelia now would only result in an argument and the permanent destruction of a potential friendship. Still, she felt guilty as she watched Willow shoot a wounded backward glance toward them. "I'll have to talk to her later and see if I can make this up to her."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Cordelia and May continued to walk toward the Library, Cordelia also continued to talk. "And if you're not too swamped with catching up, you should come by the Bronze tonight."

"What's that?"

"The Bronze. It's the only club worth going to around here. They let anybody in, but it's still the scene. It's in the bad part of town."

"Where's that?"

"About half a block from the good part of town. We don't have a lot of town here. You should show."

"Alright. I'll try."

The bell rang. "So I'll see you at gym, and you can tell me absolutely everything there is to know about you."

May grinned. "Come on, Cordelia. When has anybody ever told you everything about themselves.?"

"Ooooo. Got some juicy secrets I can tell all my friends? Well I'll see you later." And with that, Cordelia turned and walked toward her next class.

Still grinning as she walked into the library, May shook her head. "_Cordelia, if you knew my deep dark secrets, you'd never believe them."_

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The library was completely empty, as far as May could see, and apparently underused. The complete lack of sound, the musty old books on the shelves, and the old-style wood the table and floor combined to create the effect of a haunted house in daylight. May figured that someone must be here, since this was where the students were supposed to pick up their books, so she decided to speak up as she slowly walked through the library.

"Hello. Is anybody here?" May then looked down at the library counter. On it was a newspaper with an article titled "Local Boys Still Missing" circled in red ink. As she examined the article, she once again felt the odd buzzing in her head that she had felt earlier that day in the hallway outside the principal's office. As she tried to figure out what it was, she received a sudden tap on the shoulder. She spun around with a startled "Ooh"

The man she came face to face with looked about sixty years old, wore glasses, and a brown tweed suit, the very image of an old fashioned nerd. Yet, there was a hint of danger in his eye that made him fit in perfectly with the surrounding spooky atmosphere. Oddly, the buzzing in May's head had gone away.

"So someone is here after all. I was beginning to think this place was permanently deserted." Ignoring the creepiness of both the man and the location, May stuck her hand out. "Hi. I'm May Parker. I'm new."

The man returned her grip. "I'm Mr. Giles. The librarian. I was told you were coming."

"I'm here to get some books." May said as Mr. Giles hurried around the counter. "I need 'Perspectives on 20th Century….'"

Interrupting her, Mr. Giles began talking excitedly. "I know exactly what you're after." He then placed a very large, very old book on the desk. Stenciled across the cover was the title, "Vampyr".

As May's face changed to an expression of surprise, a thousand questions flashed through her mind. _Who is this guy? Why would he pull out a book on Vampires? Does he know my secret?_ May finally decided to take the cautious approach.

"No, that's not what I'm looking for."

"Are you sure?'

"Most definitely."

"My mistake." Giles bent down under the counter. "So what did you say you were looking for?"

"Well, technically, Mr. Giles, I was looking for my textbooks so I don't fail all my classes. But before we get into that, I have a question I need to ask you. Why did you automatically assume that I wanted a book on Vampires?

"I made that assumption because you are the Slayer, are you not? The council sent me to replace your old watcher."

_Darn it. _"It figures. I was really hoping you wouldn't say that, Mr. Giles. I was looking forward to some off-time."

"Miss Parker, you have a sacred duty. You can't take a vacation….."

"I know, I know, Mr. Giles. I heard it a thousand times from Merrick." May's face had gone from surprised, to angry, to finally resignation. "The fact that you're here means this isn't quite the quiet little town I thought it was. Could you just get me my books at the moment?"

"But Miss Parker….."

"Mr. Giles, I'm sure you have an entire story about what needs to be done here, but I moved here with the intention of taking a break from vampire slaying. Could you just give me some time to get used to the idea that it's not going to happen?"

"Uh.. yes I suppose I could." Said Giles, taken aback "But I must recommend you do it quickly."

"Don't worry. I will be back here at 3:00. At that point, you can brief me on the situation around here. Just let me get my regular life together before I have to mix it with my 'sacred duty'".

"Agreed. So what do you need for your classes?"

"Well as I was saying before, I need 'Perspectives on 20th Century Literature and….."

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**I had a lot of difficulty deciding what I was going to do about May's reaction to Cordelia and her behavior. I wanted May to stay true to her character, but I also didn't want her to make an enemy of Cordelia just yet. In the end, I decided that, on the first day at a school where no one knows her, even May would be reluctant to criticize one of the first people who have been nice to her, at least this early in their acquaintance. If anyone can come up with a way for May to defend Willow from Cordelia in the hallway without Cordelia immediately rejecting her as a friend, and still stay true to both May's and Season 1 Cordelia's personalities, I would love to hear it. All other constructive suggestions are also welcome.**


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